Rupee slide worsens faculty woes of B-Schools

Quite recently, the issue of faculty shortage at premier institutes in the country made news with reports of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) putting up with as much as 50 per cent vacancy rate. Adding to the concern, these new centers have not been able to establish themselves yet and operate out of temporary campuses. Read more

 

To cope with the faculty crunch while also trying to provide world-class quality to its students, country's premier B-schools are roping in international faculty who pay flying visits to conduct classes. But adding to the woes of the country's B-schools, the Indian rupee continued its slide against the dollar. Because the rupee has fallen in value, B-Schools are unable to compensate for the effective depreciation in salaries paid to their international visiting faculty from countries like the US.

 

Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad benchmarks its salaries at about 60 per cent of what international faculty members get paid in the US. As per a news report, ISB salaries were fixed in rupee terms and benchmarked against the dollar when it was 40. This week the rupee fell as low as Rs 55.39 against the dollar. As a result ISB is unable to match US remuneration levels even by 60 per cent. Hyderabad's renowned B-School launched its second campus in Mohali this year.

 

Considering that ISB is a far better pay master as compared to other management institutes in the country including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), the situation looks more serious. However, IIMs do not benchmark their salaries against the dollar, but their salaries in line with the sixth pay commission, are not competitive with the lucrative offers made by ISB to its faculty members, as per media reports. Read more

 

While ISB may ride over IIMs when it comes to recruiting international faculty in India, it's not a smooth ride on a global platform having to cope with competition from Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

 

ISB and IIMs both would be happier to have bright students enroll for PhD programmes to ensure more number of eligible candidates that could be considered for faculty positions. But given the current perception of doing a PhD in India, management students among others prefer well paying corporate jobs rather than becoming teachers. A major cause of the faculty crunch is likely to be unattractive remuneration as most B-Schools in the country would not pay hefty salaries as many of them are undercapitalized and lack basic infrastructure.

 

Other interesting reads:

- Eight NRI applicants for IIT director post

- PhD scholars go without stipend for 2 years

- Sliding rupee hikes foreign education costs